This disclosure relates generally to teleconferencing, and more particularly to a teleconferencing system and method that leverages connections and followings formed on social networking websites.
Social networks are pervasive in today's modern Internet ecosystem, and are increasingly becoming the center of Internet user's interaction with others. Businesses, groups, and individuals alike, are becoming aware of the power of Web-based social networks, and are leveraging their power to make connections and foster interaction and communication.
Despite the rapid speed with which many users communicate, or follow web-based social networking information, there is still a largely unmet need for better real-time interaction. For instance, on the Twitter website, users can instantaneously receive “Tweets” or short message service (SMS) messages by other users they follow, but unless the tweeting users are correspondingly following each and every one of their following users, the following users have no way of interacting with the tweeting users in real-time.
Further, text-based communication often lacks a “voice” of the communicator. Subtleties of spoken communication such as tone and inflection, which convey significant information by themselves, are difficult to convey by the written word or typed phrase. Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method that leverages web-based social networking with voice conferencing.